


The Valley

by hcm92



Series: The Valley [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: D&D 5e, Gen, TTRPG
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:40:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23879302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hcm92/pseuds/hcm92
Series: The Valley [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721008
Kudos: 4





	1. Augury - Prologue - The First Night of Many

Almost twenty years Augury had served in the temple and had been nothing but faithful, following Kelemvor’s teachings to a T. And how was she repaid for this servitude? She had been branded a heretic and arrested to be taken to the mines. She had thought she’d been very careful with her snooping, having never been caught, but the elder priests obviously had ways of revealing secrets she couldn’t comprehend. But what she really wanted to know was how deep their treachery spread, as the royal guard members had ignored her protests completely, taking the priests’ side without even questioning if her claims were true. But then again, who would believe a teenage orphan such as her? As she was marched towards the mines, these thoughts bounced around her skull, giving her a headache.  The tall and broad half-orc convict who had been trudging along next to her seemed to be deep in thought as well as he stared at the ground, a deep frown disturbing his rugged features. He probably would have been handsome if he hadn’t looked so miserable, or had a black cloth covering one eye, but considering the situation they were both in, his expression could be forgiven. He seemed to sense that Augury was looking at him and glanced back at her, slightly raising his uncovered eyebrow.

“You know, it’s rude to stare…”

Augury blinked at him and he rolled his visible eye, returning it to pierce the pebbled path ahead. She dropped her gaze as well, realising her time in the temple had probably left her lacking in social etiquette; she hadn’t spent much time in the company of anyone other than the priests and acolytes of Kelemvor ever since she was left on their steps as a baby.

They stopped suddenly as the guard leading them to the mines held up his hand and was hailing to someone ten paces ahead of them who was holding a couple of pieces of official looking parchment. Looking up, Augury saw a curious sight of a woman in rags tied to some crates that were being lowered on a sort of pulley system down the cliff they were stood next to. The official looking man cleared his throat, straightened the parchment and began reading aloud, as if for the benefit of a large crowd. “Augury of the Kelemvor temple, you have been found guilty of heresy and are hereby sentenced to work in the mines for an undetermined period.” Augury frowned defiantly at the man but held her tongue, lest he announce her punishment should be worsened. He shuffled the parchment and read from the second sheet. “ Halvar of the royal guard, formerly of his majesty’s army, you have been found guilty of treason and are hereby sentenced to work in the mines for an undetermined period. ” He roughly folded the two pieces and shoved them into a pack on his hip, looking down on the two criminals with contempt.  He then nodded to the guard who unbound the half-orc first, pulling him roughly to the edge of the cliff, then unceremoniously pushed him over.

The guard turned to Augury and she blinked at him in alarm, unable to believe the way into the mines was from a large drop, especially when she had just seen a pulley system in use. She resisted the urge to struggle as the guard unbound her and pulled her by the arm to the cliff. Swallowing hard, she gazed down and was slightly relieved to see the half-orc had fallen into a large pool of water at the bottom of a smallish cavern and was now heaving himself onto a stone ledge at the side, though there was no sign of the woman or the crates. She barely had time to collect her thoughts when a rough hand pushed into the small of her back and she found her breath catching in her throat as she fell, gripping the holy symbol at her neck, and plunged into the water with a loud splash. As she began to sink, Augury felt panic threatening to grip her; she did not know how to swim. She tried to kick out behind her and reach for the light above the surface, but she was making very little progress. She was not afraid of dying, only of dying too soon. A greenish arm suddenly thrust itself into the water and Augury grabbed it. Finally, she breached the water and gasped, ruefully thankful that she had not been brought there alone.

After catching her breath for a moment, she took another look into the settling pool and saw the dark face of her reflection looking back at her. Her sodden white hair slicked back against her head made her grey skin look even more sickly, and the dark circles seemed to dampen the silver glow of her eyes.  She sighed and looked over to the half-orc, then blushed an even darker grey; his soaked beige shirt and trousers were sticking to his light green skin closely and not leaving much to the imagination. She averted her eyes quickly as he looked over at her and busied herself with pulling at her own black tunic which, to her dismay, was doing the same thing as his.

Just then someone wearing black and red under chain mail armour joined them at the water’s edge, gesturing for them to follow him. They cautiously followed the elderly stranger out of the cavern to a path that wound through the mountainous valley, passing mine shafts of various sizes, and leading to a massive but crude palisade thrown into shadow by the setting sun in the distance, with small wooden huts and a grey stone castle with red slate roofing standing inside the wooden walls. He told them to pick up any equipment they felt they could make use of along the way; it was all shoddy stuff that had been discarded in the shafts, but even broken weapons and armour were better than nothing.  _ Especially as we’re not wearing very much _ , Augury thought, chancing another glance at the half-orc. The stranger introduced himself as Diego and explained that he was the shadow captain and he took care of the newcomers who were dropped into the mines. He went on to describe how things worked in the valley, how there were three camps - Old Camp which was the settlement that could be seen from where they were, New Camp and Swamp Camp - and that those at Old Camp were pretty much in charge, it being the oldest and most stable and the one that had set up trading with the king. He also told them that if they wanted to grab a pick and mine away their days in misery, like the prisoners they were dropped down there as, they were free to do so, but if they were to prove themselves useful to Gomez, Old Camp’s leader, the ore baron would allow them to join his men. He then told the pair that they should rest in the cavern for the night and he would meet them in Old Camp in the morning, then trudged off in another direction.

The pair shared a glance, concern on Augury’s face and indifference on the half-orc’s. Augury couldn’t help but feel woefully unprepared for what lay before her. She had not once slept anywhere other than in her own bed, in her own room, in the temple she’d grown up in, surrounded by the people she’d grown up with. And now she was looking at a night on a stony cavern floor, in the company of a complete stranger, followed by an unknown amount of time in an unknown place, with an unknown number of people she’d never met. The fact that this was the first time she had stepped foot outside of the immediate vicinity of the temple was daunting to her and she found herself wondering how she would survive. As she followed the half-orc back into the cavern, she gathered her courage and smiled awkwardly at him. “Um, Halvar, right? Would you mind if I stick with you while we’re here? I know we don’t know each other but I’d feel a lot better about this whole situation if I’m with someone who looks like he can handle himself…” His golden left eye seemed to scrutinise her for a moment, looking her up and down, taking in her young features and soft inexperienced hands, looked at his own rough and calloused hands, then settled back on her face. He nodded, his eyebrow slightly furrowed. Augury let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding and bowed her head gratefully, then set about trying to find somewhere comfortable to sleep, however bleak the options were.


	2. Augury - Chapter One - Old Camp Introductions

The next morning, and a while after they had set off along the path, Augury looked again at the half-orc but saw no change in his indifferent expression. She continued trudging along the path toward the camp in silence, checking over the rusted chain mail, shield and mace that she’d picked up from a nearby mine shaft. She would need to figure out how to repair them as they looked anything but sturdy, but they would do for the time being. It wasn’t long into their journey that they found reason to stop, as sitting on a log to the side of the path was a great reptilian creature, its hard shell and scaly yellow-green skin scarred and battered, but its dark eyes held an unmistakable intelligence. It was holding a large rusted war pick and had a javelin strapped to its shell, which suggested it was probably another convict making the journey to Old Camp.  Augury couldn’t help but stare, despite Halvar’s warning the previous night.

“You’re staring again.”

“I… I’ve never seen anything like him before, what is he? Uh… is he a he?”

The creature seemed to smirk softly. “He is a he.”

Augury blushed a little from embarrassment, wishing she had more experience talking to people outside of the temple, but stepped closer to the creature. “Oh, hi! Uh… what are you?”

“Well, they call me a tortle.”

Augury looked at Halvar in confusion, then whispered, “What’s a tortle?”

The tortle chuckled. “So y’know those little swimmy guys in the ocean? They just kinda float around, with a shell? Well, I’m like a big version’a one’a them.”

“Oh… I’ve never seen one of those either.”

“Well, we like to keep to ourselves, mostly.”

Augury nodded knowingly. “I’ve been kept to myself, as well… I’m Augury. I’m from the temple of Kelemvor and that’s where I’ve spent most of my life, really.”

The tortle nodded in acknowledgment. “Nice, nice. Well, I’m Flynipoko Tuka. Most folks just call me Flynn.”  He turned to the half-orc with half a smile. “And you are?”

“Halvar.”

The half smile turned into a full one. “A man’a many words, I like that. Are you heading to the, ah, old settlement there?”

Halvar shrugged, looking off at the shoddy walls of the camp. Augury nodded. “That’s where Diego told us to go.”

Flynn stood up from the log and stretched. “Well, why don’t we mosey on over there together?”

“Sure!” Augury didn’t feel so ill prepared as she had before.  Meeting a seemingly friendly creature who looked just as fearsome as Halvar gave her a newfound confidence as the three of them continued down the path. Not much more conversation passed between the trio but their journey didn’t last long as they crossed a bridge over a stream that marked the entrance to the north-west gate of the camp. Two men stood either side of the bridge, wearing matching black and red cloth under better quality armour than Augury and Halvar had found, hinting at their belonging to a guard of some sort, possibly the same one as Diego. Neither of them paid the newcomers any mind, obviously used to all manner of people coming through from the cliffs and not even batting an eye at the tortle or half-orc, let alone what looked to be a grey skinned human girl. They walked through the gate built into the wood and cloth walls, surrounding run down little huts made of the same materials, as well as the stone castle in the centre, looking decrepit and dilapidated but still functional as activity could be seen within and three men guarded the gated entrance. Almost immediately the three newcomers saw Diego sitting on a bench outside a hut and in front of a campfire, holding a bottle of what looked like water and looking directly at them. He leaned forward as they approached and appraised them.

“Ah, you made it. Didn’t expect it to take you this long, but least you’re here. You didn’t get eaten by scavengers.”

Augury’s eyes widened but Halvar shrugged. “It was a pretty easy walk.”

Diego smirked. “Oh, I’m glad you think so, just don’t be thinking the whole colony’s this peaceful, boy. Ah, and here’s-”

“Good morning, Diego. Wonderful to see you again.” Diego was interrupted by the arrival of three more people; an ebony skinned human man with black eyes and wearing a fine jacket and amulet, a short, pale half-elf woman with braided brown and red hair, and a tall man with a bird’s beak and feathers. It was the human who had spoken but even as he continued, Augury couldn’t tear her eyes away from the feathered man. “Picked up a few more newbies since I saw you last, I see. These friends of yours, Diego?”

Diego chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t think so, they’re gonna be friends of yours because… well, frankly I don’t have the manpower or the patience to be babysitting all of you individually, so I… for my own sanity, I will admit to that… Maybe the six of you should stick together as a unit, to make my life a little easier, y’know? Afterall, you wanna work for me, so you gotta do your best to impress me.”

The dark man raised his head in admission. “I presumed this was the first of your tests, putting us together as a group.” He then raised a hand to greet the three newcomers. “Well met, fellows, glad to meet you all. Welcome to Old Camp. This old rascal’s told us nothing so hopefully he’ll be more forthcoming now you’re here. I am Modau Graal.”

Augury continued staring at the bird man who had noticed and was stretching his wings which sported inumerable feathers of varying shades of browns, creams and reds, almost as if he was showing off.  Halvar looked down at Augury and rolled his eye. “You’re staring. Again.”

Augury still couldn’t tear her eyes away. “But… he’s… he’s a bird…”

The bird man piped up. “Aarakocra. And my name is Te-Ekara Whero.”

Modau looked over and smirked. “Yes, he’s a big bird. And he can fly if we need him to.” As Te-Ekara flapped his wings majestically, Augury couldn’t help but be awestruck by such a fascinating creature. Modau smirked again then turned back to the man on the bench who had been watching the interaction with mild amusement. “So then, Diego, where would you have us start? Do you want us to speak to your fellows around the camp?”

Diego looked up and regarded Modau. “I believe I gave you all the same speech; Gomez is, obviously, the most powerful man in this colony. Well, as far as our camp goes, at least. And if you wanna work for him, you have to impress me. Like I said, my men are pretty recognisable, wearing much the same outfits as I am. If you impress my men, you impress me, and I will allow you to do a sort of test of faith. And should you pass it, I’ll let you in on our little arrangement. There are people round this camp you should probably meet and, uh… do some things for ‘em. Make ‘em like you. Otherwise, you’re not gonna get very far here.”

Raising an eyebrow, Modau looked at the rest of the group, then back to Diego. “Anyone in particular you’d like us to start with, or should we just see who we come across first?”

“Well, my men are scattered all over the place. I’m sure you’ve seen at least two of them near your hut.”

“Yes, I did notice them in passing.”

“The man tucked away in his little corner is Hand. He’s, uh… he’s my best thief, y’see.”

Modau rubbed his chin with a wry smile. “Hand? Ah, I see. Yes, how clever.”

Diego went on. “The man in the hut next to him is, uh… is Shifty. He’s the arena manager. Likes to organise fights between caps and prisoners and whatnot.” He leant back on his bench. “Those are just a couple examples. There are some at the markets and some overseeing the miners here and there. I’m sure you can spot them.”

Nodding, Modau straightened. “Very well. Then we shall take our group, take leave of your presence, for now, and we shall speak to you soon, Diego.” He looked around at the group again. “Unless anyone else has any questions for our gentleman friend, here?”

Halvar shrugged, Te-Ekara shook his head, and everyone else seemed happy to move on. Augury piped up. “Um, where do we sleep?”

Diego held his hands palm up. “Ah, well, there’s only one hut available and these three have already snagged it, so I suppose you’ll have to make do with six of you in one very little home…”

Modau brushed off the remark and addressed Augury. “We’ll show you to the hut where we have based ourselves and we’ll work out some sort of rotation for sleeping, don’t worry.” He then clapped his hands together impatiently. “Right, let us go and find Hand and Shifty.” Without checking that the rest of the group were following, he turned and started walking away, up alongside one of the castle walls.

Ignoring the departing Modau, Te-Ekara introduced himself properly to the newcomers, handing them a ration of scavenger meat each. Flynn offered to shake his hand. “Why, thank you, my friend. Y’know, I was impressive for one minute there, then she got one look at your beautiful wings and whoa, she’s away.”

A feathered eyebrow was raised. “She hasn’t seen many others, then?”

Flynn chuckled, looking at the girl standing next to him, her mouth agape in awe at the two strange creatures conversing before her. “I mean, I don’t think she’s seen many’a anythin’.”

Te-Ekara nodded knowingly. “A bit green behind the gills, I take it.”

“It seems that way, my friend.”

The half-elf woman wearing fine but worn clothes stepped up and offered a hand. “Sefris Lockheart, pleasure to meet you all. Sorry I’m a bit quiet, I used to run a bar and I’m used to being the listener and not the talker. It is not through rudeness, you understand.”

Flynn nodded his reptilian head knowingly.  “Ah, so we got another one like Halvar, here. We got, ah… some thinkers, not-talkers. That’s always good to have in a group, y’know?”

There were a few more exchanges between the group members who hadn’t walked off, and once introductions had finished they joined Modau at a hut that had been fitted with all sorts of cooking tools and implements, with a jolly looking man fussing about over some bubbling pots from which there wafted some delicious smells. More introductions were made and the cook, whose name was Snuff, offered the group some roach stew, the name of which made Augury go pale, but actually tasted lovely. Snuff was obviously a miracle worker with food. Te-Ekara had put his hood up and seemed rather preoccupied, looking around at the miners walking passed, so Modau suggested they move on.

In between Snuff’s hut and the next one over sat a skinny man wearing a similar outfit to Diego’s except his sleeves were missing and he wasn’t wearing the gauntleted gloves. He noticed the group approaching and appraised them with a calculating stare. This must have been Hand. Modau did most of the talking, explaining they had been told of a job that Hand needed able bodies for, to which Hand said he did indeed and described what it was that needed to be done. The camp’s smith, whose forge was next to the ruined watchtower, needed to be relieved of some of his blades, though he did keep them locked away so some larceny was to be involved. Augury was astonished to see Te-Ekara flash a set of what looked like lockpicks in and out of his pocket in a way that only those who were looking at him could have seen, and since she was so fascinated by this bird man, she couldn’t help but see it. She was even more astonished by some of the words these people said, as they spoke of dispatching the smith if he were to catch them in the act. Luckily, that idea was nipped in the bud very quickly, and Augury was able to relax slightly. Only slightly, though. She basically had to just follow along with wherever the group was going as she felt there weren’t really any alternatives, but she reserved the right to not agree with everything they were doing. Holding onto her faith was still very much an important part of her life.

After settling their agreement with Hand, the group carried on around the corner, between the stone castle wall and what looked to be the ramshackle wooden walls of a fighting pit, and stopped when they reached a hut outside of which was stood another red and black garbed man in front of a table with various swords laid on it and colourful banners either side. Next to him were three very burly men, all with shaved heads like Shifty himself and all plainly fighters that he had employed for his arena battle entertainment, though only one of them was practicing with a sword, apparently trying to kill the air with it. The other two men were sitting on benches around a campfire. Again, Modau led the conversation, asking if he needed any work done. Shifty didn’t have a job for them, but he did need challengers to fight the three gladiators as they’d beaten pretty much everyone else, and the camp still needed entertainment.  Both Flynn and Halvar volunteered and Augury looked up at Halvar in concern as he had chosen to fight the largest of the three, Kharim from New Camp who had apparently beaten everyone he’d come up against. Cutter was the one practicing and was a guard from Old Camp, as well as the least experienced. Baal Taran was the strange looking tattooed man from Swamp Camp who was just blankly gazing into the fire, and the man Flynn was going to fight. He spoke of a Brotherhood of the Sleeper which seemed to alight Sefris’ curiosity, as she stepped closer to ask him about it.

He looked up at her in surprise, his delight that someone had taken an interest clear on his face. “Yes, have you heard of him?” When Sefris shook her head, he nodded in admission. “Ah, well, I’m not from here, you see. I’m from the camp in the swamps. We believe in… well, our god, the Sleeper. We believe that he will eventually save us from this imprisonment. We’ve been enlightened by the medicine of the swamp and we have visions…” He seemed to zone out for a moment, his eyes unfocusing and then coming back to Sefris’ face. “He speaks to us through visions. He guides our hands… I guess, endows his mercy upon us, to let us escape this damned prison.”

Sefris was listening intently. “Fascinating.”

Augury, who had caught some of the conversation and was rather confused, looked up at Halvar, frowning. “I’ve never heard of a… a god called the Sleeper…” Halvar didn’t seem to care but she continued. “And I should know, I’ve lived in a temple my whole life. I’ve studied the gods.”

Halvar looked down at her with his free eyebrow raised. “There’re a lot more than Kelemvor, y’know.”

“No, I know!”

“Right.” He paused for a moment, a thought obviously just crossing his mind. “He’s a priest or something. Baal is follower in old orcish. So it’s probably more like a title than a name.”

Sefris was still talking with Baal Taran but took a step away as she saw that the rest of the group were ready to depart. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but it appears my party has other plans. Good luck with the fight!”

“If you ever feel like you want to learn abou- oh, okay…” Taran looked down with a dejected expression as Sefris joined the group in walking further down the path.

Continuing on with the castle wall on their right, the group eventually approached the ruined tower, collecting some giant roaches for Snuff’s stew along the way as they skitted around the huts. The smithy’s forge was on the higher level of the camp, just on the other side of a ramp to the tower. They could hear clanging, presumably coming from the smith himself, so Te-Ekara flew over to have a look and talk to him, again lighting up Augury’s fascination for his wings.  While he was assessing the smith, Sefris led Flynn to show him the hut the first three had made their base in, and Modau, Halvar and Augury went back to Snuff with the roaches. After giving his thanks, he reminded them of the mushrooms and Modau explained to the two newcomers that Snuff had sent the first three out to find ingredients for his cooking, one of them being roaches and another being hellshrooms which they were apparently going to go and find next.

Modau led them around the other side of the fighting pit and showed the two newcomers where the hut was, meeting back up with the other three just outside it. Te-Ekara described the smithy to the group, explaining where the lockbox was, where the smith slept, and even that he was a most unpleasant man. Something was mentioned about only stealing from the grumpy which Augury didn’t understand. They then discussed finding the hellshrooms and looking for a missing guard, Nek, along the way, since he had been tasked with finding the shrooms a few weeks ago and hadn’t returned. Another person they needed to be on the lookout for was Mordrag, someone who worked for New Camp but apparently had an arrangement with Old Camp which let him get away with quite a lot. Augury felt confused by all the camps and the people, and asked if there was a war going on between the different camps. The three who had arrived before her recited what they had learned; that Old Camp was in charge but New Camp tended to mess with their business a lot, earning them the name Locusts. They weren’t openly at war, but they certainly didn’t like each other. Swamp Camp, on the other hand, was just a camp full of religious zealots who smoked things they probably shouldn’t and mostly kept to themselves.

“They think their god can save them.” Sefris was shrugging her shoulders. “But doesn’t everyone who’s religious?”

Augury touched the holy symbol of Kelemvor at her throat and was about to pipe up, but Modau spoke first. “Indeed, though their god has left them in here, so…” He seemed to notice Augury’s expression, then noticed her hand on her pendant. “The god of death, however, we know always works.”

Clearing her throat awkwardly, Augury nodded. “Uh, yeah, I was about to say…”

“I recognise the symbol. You are a long way from your temple, I must say, my dear.”

Augury shuffled from foot to foot. “Um, yeah… That’s kind of a long story…”

Modau raised an eyebrow slightly. “I imagine it involves accusations of crimes somewhere.” Seeing Augury get more agitated, he held up a hand. “And the details can wait.” Augury nodded and Modau continued. “True for all of us here. Rightly or otherwise, this is where the crown tends to send those who cause them mischief.”

Flynn jutted his bony jaw out. “Yeah? Well, that means you’re no innocent yourself.”

Modau simply shrugged. “I wouldn’t say any of us are innocent if we’re here. Just that what we’re accused of might not be what we’re guilty of.”

Augury frowned, thinking back on her life as a faithful servant of Kelemvor. “I’m not sure I’m guilty of anything.”

The group looked at her and laughed in varying degrees of amusement. It probably shouldn’t have been, but this girl’s naivety was surprising, especially considering where she was. Te-Ekara gave her a condescending look. “You wouldn’t be in here if you weren’t found guilty of something.”

Augury’s frown continued. “Well, I was accused of something-”

Te-Ekara chuckled. “No, no, my dear. You have been found guilty of something. Whether that guilt is actually true or not is besides the point.”

“It was decided that this is the place that you should be, it has never really been your choice.” Modau looked down on the girl with a sort of sympathy, then gave Te-Ekara a side glance. “I’d say you’d ruffled some feathers somewhere but I appreciate in present company that that’s in bad taste…”

The bird man didn’t seem to notice, continuing his train of thought in a patronising way. “In a way, aren’t we all guilty of something.” It was more a statement than a question.

Sefris moved to Augury’s side and put a hand on her arm gently. “I think it’s unfair to single out the girl.”

Te-Ekara seemed taken aback. “Not singling anybody out. Everybody here is guilty of something.”

Augury’s frown had lasted so long it was now giving her a headache. All this talk of guilt made her wonder if the elder priests of her temple knew that what they were doing was wrong, or if they even cared. Would they someday end up here? Modau had mentioned the crown sent those that they wanted out of the way here, so did the king know what they were up to? Was he encouraging it? Augury shook her head to dispel these thoughts. It did no good to dwell on big picture issues when there were smaller ones that required her immediate attention. And apparently gathering hellshrooms and looking for a missing guard were two of them.

The group were approaching the southern gate when they saw a figure in blue robes smoking something unpleasant smelling, and Modau went to speak to him, the rest of the group in tow. He turned out to be Mordrag and spoke quite openly about how the people in New Camp were actually free men, unlike in Old Camp, and didn’t seem to mind that anyone might have heard him. Apparently working as a courier for the fire mages in Old Camp’s castle gave him a sort of diplomatic immunity that Mordrag seemed pretty pleased with. He then told the group that the water mages in New Camp were the key to escaping, explaining that they had their own mines for the magical ore but weren’t selling it to the king, they were stockpiling it until they had enough to blow the magical barrier over the valley sky high. The group exchanged looks and came to the conclusion this man was off his nut. Augury thought he’d probably been smoking too much of the horrible smelling stuff he had been puffing on the whole time he was talking. Modau mentioned that they may have to meet these water mages and Mordrag suggested he could get them a nice spot in Lares’ band if they did some work for him. Augury was once again confused by the subject of conversation, not knowing anything about Lares, the mages or even what the stuff he was smoking was, but she listened to everything intently in the hopes of learning how to escape the mining valley and return to her temple to put a stop to the treachery she had found. She would probably not be able to do this on her own, however, so making friends while she was there was a good plan as well, however unsavoury they were.

The conversation ended with Flynn taking a puff of Mordrag’s smoke, then the group were on their way again to find the hellshrooms. They walked through the gates and passed an old ruined hut on the outskirts, eventually reaching the top of a sort of grassy hill, down the bottom of which could be seen the mouth of a cave which could possibly have these shrooms in, Te-Ekara told the group after flying up to take a look. “There are some beasts of some sort, about the size of a large dog, but they seem… not the nicest…”

Augury raised her eyebrows. “Are they dogs?”

“They’re not dogs, but they’re about the size of a dog.”

Halvar shrugged. “Do they seem friendly?”

Te-Ekara raised an eyebrow at him. “By ‘not the nicest’...”

Another shrug. “I assumed you meant ugly.”

“Well, they’re also that but… I mean, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, wouldn’t you say?” He gave a pointed look to Halvar who just stared back.

Modau rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It’s possible that these would be scavengers around the camp. I wonder if getting rid of them would help ingratiate ourselves… And it may give us a chance to get used to each other’s skill sets as well and see how we perform under pressure.”

Te-Ekara readied his bow, looking down the nocked arrow at one of the beasts. “I can certainly get rid of them now, if you want.”

“From here I can reach them as well. I think maybe we start a bombardment and if they come close we can see how our frontline fighters fare.” He looked around at those who hadn’t spoken yet. “Unless someone else wanted to suggest something?”

Lifting her shoulders, Augury spoke uncertainly. “I mean, are they in our way?”

“Well, it’s possible that the mushrooms we seek would actually be within their cave. It’s the sort of thing that grows in low light and refuse, like from dog-sized creatures, perhaps.”

Te-Ekara’s bow did not lower. “Looking at the size of these things, Snuff would more than likely make something good out of their meat. So they wouldn’t go to waste, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Augury shrugged in defeat. “I guess I’ll bow to your better judgement.”

Without waiting for anyone else to speak, Te-Ekara loosed his arrow at one of the beasts and Modau sent a ray of frost at the other but missed, causing them both to screech horribly. The first was still alive, much to Te-Ekara’s annoyance, and four more scrambled out from inside the cave to join the two outside.  Te-Ekara, Modau and Flynn slung arrows, bolts of magic and javelins at the beasts while Halvar readied his axe and Sefris ran up to meet the surging line of rodents. They looked like large rats but with very little hair, and their smell was enough to make you retch. Augury had never fought anything before and was a little at a loss as to what to do, hanging back slightly in uncertainty. She resolved herself and cast a  _ bane _ spell on three of the rats whilst running up to slam her mace into another, but her swing missed as the rat lunged at the crazed looking Flynn and it hit the floor, making an awful cracking sound and shedding some of the rust. Everyone else fought with practiced grace, and even Sefris was punching with a purpose. It wasn’t long before all six of them had been dispatched and Augury couldn’t help but feel a little shaken from the fight, as even though she’d had little to do with their deaths, she still felt an uneasiness settle at the back of her mind. Te-Ekara mentioned that there might have been something other than rats and mushrooms in the cave. Modau went to have a look and called Augury over who was thankful for something that had not died by her own means, and stepped closer to see the still body of a camp guard lying face down in the cave, a blunt axe lying next to him and a simple looking amulet around his neck. As Modau took the amulet, Augury examined the body as she had done so many times with the freshly dead in the temple, determining that he had been there for a few weeks and had likely died from being attacked by those rat creatures.  _ Who goes into a cave of dangerous rats with a blunt weapon _ , she asked herself. Modau showed the group the back of the amulet which had the letters N E K scratched onto it. That presumably answered who this body used to be and where the missing guard was.

The group gathered as many of the mushrooms and rat bodies they could carry, with Augury trying not to look at them directly, and took them back to Snuff who was very appreciative. “Oh, my my! That’s a lot of food you’ve brought me!” When Modau showed him Nek’s amulet he shook his head in surprise. “Oh, I thought he had run off and betrayed us, but he’s dead, is he?”

“Apparently he decided to take a blunt weapon into an angry nest of molerats and it didn’t go well for him.”

Snuff shrugged. “Well, yeah, he was never the smartest of Diego’s men, y’see. Er, not entirely sure what was wrong with him, but uh…”

Modau raised an eyebrow. “I presume he was strong and that was his main redeeming feature.”

“He did have a hefty hand, yeah.” Snuff nodded at the amulet. “But keep a hold of that amulet, maybe someone’ll want it.”

Putting it in his pocket, Modau nodded. “I shall be guided by you in this, Snuff.”

Snuff raised his hands. “Well, I don’t know who he reported to, to be honest with you.”

“It might be a good idea to take it to Diego then, I suppose.”

Te-Ekara piped up. “I would have thought Maradona would have been in charge of him.” Yet another name that Augury didn’t know.

“Perhaps? I’m just a chef, I just asked him to fetch some mushrooms for me.”

Modau gestured to the shrooms and rat bodies graciously, almost as if he had brought them by himself. “Well, here are plenty of mushrooms and some molerats for extra meat as well.”

“Yes, very good! And again, you can have as much food as you want, and uh…” Snuff leant in and continued in a lower tone. “Tell you what, if you ever need to, uh, get a word about anyone in the camp… I’ve been here a while, I might know something about ‘em.”

“We shall certainly bear that in mind.” And with that, Modau bid the chef goodbye and led the group back to where Diego had been that morning to inform him of Nek’s death. Diego, however, was not on his bench or in his hut, so the group wandered back to their own hut and deliberated on what to do next. Te-Ekara needed some more arrows and Augury needed to get her mace fixed, but both were exceedingly low on funds. Nevertheless, the marketplace was where the group settled on going, partly to find out where these tasks could be fulfilled, partly to find more of Diego’s men, and partly just to familiarise themselves with the camp.

Just as they were walking passed the north end of the fighting pit, a guard watching over some miners having their lunch must have thought they were walking toward him and he called out that if they were looking to pay him protection money, he wasn’t there. Flynn asked him what he meant and the guard said pretty much the same thing, not elaborating in the slightest. Deciding he didn’t care for talking with this guard, Flynn put a great clawed hand on one of his shoulders. When the guard did not protest, he put his other hand on the other shoulder, sidestepped both of them so they had turned a quarter of a circle, then let go, turned around and walked away, leaving the guard looking after him in confusion. The rest of the group were just as mystified, but Sefris walked up to the guard and asked him a more specific question, to which he replied that the miners paid the guards for protection from the other convicts, but this shouldn’t have been his job and he should have been in the barracks having a nice cold beer, but because Nek had run off, he’d had to work overtime. Sefris informed him that Nek had died and the guard swore colourfully, complaining that he’d have to work even more now. She asked him his name and he told her it was Fletcher. She then asked who was in charge of Nek and he informed her that Sly was the man to talk to, but gave no further information as he sat down next to one of the miners and continued to curse the dimwitted Nek.

The group followed after Flynn round the camp, passed the ruined tower, and approached the market place which was cast into shadow by the main buildings of the castle. This was obviously the social hub of the camp as it was full of miners and guards alike, milling around huts filled with all sorts of bits and bobs, as well as a large campfire in the middle, around which people were sitting and eating and drinking. A tall man in plate armour guarded the eastern entrance to the markets and paid them no mind until one or two of the party smiled or waved at him, then he grinned at them. Almost the first hut they looked at sold various potions and gear and was manned by a shadow guard called Dexter. Modau asked him if he had any odd jobs for them. Dexter had apparently heard of someone in the sect of Swamp Camp who had a recipe that was of great interest to him, but he was stuck at this post selling his wares and watching over the market. The person in question was called Cora Calom and was a guru of Swamp Camp who made healing potions from the hallucinogenic swamp weed, and they were said to be very addictive which meant Dexter would be making several regular customers with this recipe. Augury frowned at the morality of such a business model, but said nothing. Modau convinced Dexter to give him fifty gold in order to try to buy the recipe, but Dexter also talked very bluntly of stealing it if the money wasn’t enough.

Feeling a little overwhelmed with the bluntness of the degradation of this place, Augury decided to move as far away from the conversation as she could while still standing close to Halvar. She had been watching him amongst the other members of the group and his indifferent expression appeared to change very subtly depending on the subject of conversation and who was talking. She wondered if she would ever learn to read this half-orc’s face, then quickly looked away when his gold eye turned toward her, not wanting another warning about staring.

The group then moved on, further into the marketplace to the biggest hut which was well stocked with decent weapons, in which Fisk lazily sat, a scrawny shadow guard who was eyeing up everyone who walked passed. He seemed to straighten up a bit as Te-Ekara approached and boldly asked for some feathers off him. Some back and forth went on that Augury was a little too tired to hear, but she was pulled back to it when Te-Ekara pulled a tiny feather from his chest which seemed to disappoint Fisk but he still handed over a silver piece. They then made a proper deal, five feathers and five silver for a full quiver of arrows, as Fisk could make several flights from Te-Ekara’s bigger feathers. Augury raised an eyebrow as he pulled a few out of his chest.

“Does it hurt when you pull those feathers out?”

“A little bit. Does it hurt when you pull a hair out?”

Augury nodded. “A little bit.”

Flynn shrugged, looking over his scaly skin and shell and flicking bits of dirt off it. “I wouldn’t know.”

Modau had noticed another member of the sect sat by the campfire, with similar tattoos to Baal Taran, and had gone over to speak to him. Augury frowned as she remembered Taran’s talk of the false god and Modau winked at her as he finished his conversation, informing the group as he came back to them that Baal Parvez would lead them to Swamp Camp when they needed to get this recipe of Dexter’s.

Yet another shadow guard called Whistler stood at the western entrance of the market and apparently wanted a fancy sword from Fisk, but Fisk wouldn’t sell it to him. As Te-Ekara and Sefris set about arranging the job, Augury found her mind wandering back to her quiet life in the temple. There was certainly a lot to do while she lived there, but it was at least stuff that she understood and had made sense. Everything here was strange and rough and she knew no-one properly.  Her closest friend in this camp was a half-orc who barely looked at her except to check she wasn’t staring. All these new people were becoming a bit much for her; she’d lived all her life only knowing those in the temple and the dead that she helped inter.  _ Very _ occasionally the families they came from. So having to meet so many new people in just one half-day was beginning to take its toll on her. She sighed sadly as she watched Te-Ekara haggling and Sefris flirting with Fisk before being handed a sword and bringing it back to Whistler.

They moved on and the man called Sly that they needed to tell about Nek was taking a dinner break with some miners, but was grateful to the group for bringing him Nek’s amulet and telling him where the body was and agreed to vouch for them should Diego ask about them.

Augury yawned. “Is this what it’s always been like? In this camp?”

Modau raised an eyebrow at her yawn. “As far as I can ascertain, yes.”

“How long have you guys been here?”

“About twenty-four hours longer than yourselves.” Te-Ekara had started preening his chest feathers, being careful to cover up the missing ones.

“Oh, so you’re newbies like us, then?”

He laughed incredulously. “Of course. We wouldn’t be walking around trying to talk to people if we knew what was going on, would we?”

“Fair.” Augury paused for a moment, thinking back on the day’s events. “Everyone seems really shady.”

Modau had a sour look on his face. “That’s because they are.”

Te-Ekara was staring at the girl’s naivety again. “And because they’re bloody criminals. They’re not all going to be flowers and roses, you know.”

Laughing awkwardly, Augury shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking that…”

“Just be careful of everybody.” Te-Ekara gave her a serious look. “They’re all out to get you.” He then turned and stalked off, with Flynn shrugging and following him on to the upper level of the western camp while the rest of the group carried on down the lower level.

The sky had started to darken when those on the upper level were stopped by a guard who asked about protection money and Flynn’s fight the next evening was mentioned, but by this point Augury wasn’t able to pay very much attention. Even when the lower level group had stopped and spoken to the heavily armoured and solemn Thorus by the north-western gate that Augury had arrived through only about seven hours ago, she found herself yearning for a bed. Not just to sleep, but also for the opportunity to recover from meeting so many unorthodox people, and most likely to mourn for her lost life in the temple and the people she had grown up with.


	3. Augury - Chapter Two - The Fighting Pit

The group returned to their hut and the sky had darkened quite considerably, throwing everything within the camp walls into shadow and making it look even seedier. Torches were lit by various guards but they didn’t shed much light on the situation as the group filed into the tiny hut. Modau and Te-Ekara discussed robbing the smithy and then left to attempt the mission while the rest stayed and rested for a while. Augury sat on the dusty floor, the events of the day and the people they had met playing and replaying in her head, and she felt her energy quickly failing her. She must have nodded off for a moment as she looked up to find Modau and Te-Ekara had returned, shaking their heads. They explained that they had been unsuccessful in their endeavour, but had another plan to try again if the smithy was at the fight the next night. Augury blinked again and Modau had disappeared, then after another blink he had returned and was gesturing for everyone to exit the hut.

“It appears, ladies and gentlemen, that our next door neighbour has been so gracious as to allow us the use of his hut. So, I suggest that the tortle and the aarakocra stay in this one as it’s a little bit larger and they need the space, and the women can use the hut next door?” He shepherded the group outside to show them the open doorway of the newly acquired hut and gestured grandly. “Since there are six of us, I do suggest we might want to start spreading out a little more.”

“Actually, there’s seven.”

Augury had been yawning deeply but jumped at the high pitched voice coming from near her elbow. She turned to see a child-sized person looking up at everyone, with tanned skin, brown hair and hazel eyes, wearing battered leather and a few small rusted weapons on her belt. “Wh-who’s this?”

Modau regarded the halfling with a raised eyebrow. “Good evening, young lady. Can we be of service to you? I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure.”

She giggled in quite a childish way but something in her eyes suggested she was not to be trifled with. “Diego sent me over here. Apparently you’re new, and I’m new… I just got shoved over the cliff this afternoon.”

Modau looked as if he was fighting off the urge to roll his eyes and he muttered under his breath while Te-Ekara cocked his head. “Another newbie, I see.” She nodded and Te-Ekara nodded back. “Have you paid your protection money, whatever-your-name-is?”

“What is your name, my dear?” Modau had shot Te-Ekara a look but the halfling hadn’t seemed to notice.

“Verna.”

Te-Ekara had ignored Modau’s look as well. “Have you paid your protection money, Verna?”

“Nope.”

“Good. Just make some excuses when you’re asked.”

Verna shrugged. “Most people don’t tend to notice me given that I’m really really short.” She was indeed really short as the top of her head only reached Augury’s hips.

“Well, that can come in handy…” Te-Ekara and Modau shared a glance, obviously having the same idea.

“Indeed… Well, welcome, Verna. Pleasure to meet you, my name is Modau. This is Te-Ekara, Sefris, Augury you’re stood next to, Flynn is the big tortle,  and Halvar is the moody looking half-orc . Diego’s given you his spiel about the shadows, I presume? And the camps, and blah blah blah.”

Verna frowned. “He might have… When people get talky talky I kinda get… sometimes a bit stabby stabby, other times… just not listening.”

Most of the group took a slight step away from her and Modau adopted a neutral smile. “Good to know, thank you for sharing…”  Flynn and Halvar took the opportunity to wander off toward the fighting pit, leaving the rest of the group to watch Verna with suspicion .

Augury had to fight between wanting to pay attention and her tiredness. She probably would have been wary of this halfling had she not been woken from her dozing not long ago. “Um, maybe now’s a good time to go to bed? I’m really tired…” Some conversation was had about who would be staying in which hut,  Flynn and Halvar returned , and Verna said something about a sausage which everyone seemed confused about, then Te-Ekara and Modau seemed to voice the idea they’d had earlier.

Te-Ekara nodded to Modau as they finished their hushed conversation and turned back to the halfling. “Verna, was it? Would you say you’re quite adept at being unseen, going unnoticed, and getting into places that others can’t?”

“Yep. Until I got caught and shoved in here.”

“Well, that’s why we’re all here. So…” He sidled up next to Verna, the other side of her to Augury, and spoke in a low murmur. “We have something you can prove your worth to us with, and get you a place in one of our well-established houses.”

He gestured to the two ramshackle huts made of rotting planks and fraying cloth and Verna raised an eyebrow at them incredulously. “I have literally slept in better looking woods and ditches.”

“Ah, yes, this may be so. But in these huts-“

Verna tapped her foot impatiently. “What do you want me to steal, break, stab, whatever. What do you want me to do?”

Modau smirked. “I begin to like this one.”

Te-Ekara pulled a face. “Steal is a harsh word…”

“Liberate.” Modau suggested.

“Liberate!”

Verna rolled her eyes. “What do you want me to “liberate”, then?” She had put her fingers up for quotation marks which made Modau smirk again.

Feathers ever so slightly ruffled, Te-Ekara carried on. “At the end of the road, on the right-hand side, there is a blacksmith, and in this blacksm-”

“Get to the point! What do you want me to steal?”

Te-Ekara steeled himself, tempering his annoyance at her insolence with the idea that she likes to stab people just for talking. “There is a box. A locked box. And if you can open that lock, there are some blades-”

Sefris rolled her eyes and piped up. “Just take everything in the box.”

Verna crossed her arms. “You realise I’m quite small and might struggle to carry everything…”

Modau smiled reassuringly. “There will be at least two of us nearby.”

“Sefris, would you care to join us to aid in Verna’s endeavour?” Te-Ekara looked to Sefris pleadingly.

Verna looked up at Augury who had yawned another body-shaking yawn. “Is the tall yawny lady going to have a nap? Because she’s sort of making me tired…” She stifled her own yawn as Augury looked blearily up at everyone.

Modau nodded. “She will be going to bed, yes.”

“We met so many people today…” Augury stretched but nothing was going to ease her weariness.

“Yeah, people are dicks.”

She looked down at the halfling in surprise. “Oh, um, th-that wasn’t what I meant, but…”

Verna patted her grey arm uncertainly. “Just go to bed, young… thing…”

Augury looked up at Modau and Te-Ekara again, though she could barely see them through her heavy lids. “Um, where am I sleeping?”

Te-Ekara gestured to the new hut. “Well, as Modau has pointed out, we have acquired this new establishment. I think it will be to your liking, madame.”

“Madame? That’s a bit forma-”

Te-Ekara seemed to have had enough. “Just get your shit and get in there.”

Augury’s eyes widened in shock but she hurriedly walked into the hut, the plank that acted as a door being replaced by someone outside as she did. She tried to look around at the dingy hut, thrown into almost complete darkness with the odd spot of light shining through the cracks in the rotting plank walls, but she was far too tired to take anything in and just about found the threadbare cot in the corner before falling into a fitful sleep.

Augury awoke early, just as she used to do in the temple, and sat up to start her morning prayers.  Not really knowing what to pray about, she found herself mumbling about her current situation and the fight that was coming up which made her worry for Halvar and Flynn’s health. Though she knew she could heal them if push came to shove, she wasn’t sure of the rules of this fighting pit \- or any fighting pit for that matter, as she had only ever been to the market just outside of the temple. She was vaguely aware of Sefris stirring and then gently waking Verna, then joining the other group members congregating outside the huts, leaving Augury to her prayers. She could still hear them through the rotting wood walls.

Verna yawned. “That was a surprisingly nice sleep!”

Sefris spoke wearily, obviously not had as good a night’s sleep on the ground as there was only one bed and a chair which Augury and Verna had occupied. “You feel better for that, do you?”

The next voice was Modau’s which could have been sarcastic but Augury couldn’t tell. “The ground indeed was more comfortable than I remember.”

“I just like not having some random bloke using me as a pillow.” Augury nearly fell off the bed she was sat on as Verna spoke, her innocent mind reeling at the possible meanings behind Verna’s words. She shook herself and continued with her prayers.

There was a pause before Modau continued speaking. “So, tonight we have our fight to the death. Did we want to achieve something during the day?”

“I’m sorry, a fight to the what?” At Verna’s question, Augury quickly finished her prayers and headed out of the hut, eyeing everyone up in concern,  lingering on Halvar but only being met with the same indifferent expression that seemed to be his default.

Modau bowed his head in greeting to her, then turned back to Verna. “Two of our fellows have decided to make a challenge in the arena behind me, so that will be tonight’s entertainment.”

Augury piped up,  her voice wavering a little and eyes still fixed on Halvar . “I certainly hope it’s not to the death…”

“They’ve not said anything of the rules yet, so…” Modau watched as Augury’s expression became more worried and nodded to her. “I would be ready with those prayers of yours.”

Sefris frowned at Modau then turned to the others. “I am going to go and acquire us some breakfast.”

Modau clapped his hands together. “Yes, we should all go and visit Snuff. Verna, follow us and we’ll introduce you to the camp chef. He does a wonderful roach.”

“I feel like we have enough of those scavenger rations to make breakfast…” Te-Ekara had taken his rations out and was counting how many could be handed round, but Modau shrugged at him.

“I still want to introduce her to him. And we may as well get some more roach stew while there.”

After a bit more back and forth, Modau and Sefris took Verna over to Snuff’s hut while the rest of the group stayed at the huts in a sort of awkward silence.  Both Flynn and Halvar had stony faces, perhaps mentally readying themselves for their fights, so any conversation with them was short and uninterested, not that that put Te-Ekara off proposing a plan to them. “Halvar, Flynn… I have a bit of a… an idea that we could maybe make some money and get on Fletcher’s good side, which in turn might get us a good word with Gomez.”

Halvar barely raised his free eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

“Well, Fletcher is obviously a bit peeved at having to work so many extra hours now that his colleague Nek has met his unfortunate end in that cave. So, what if we were to do some of Nek’s work for Fletcher and negotiate a cut from the money Nek should have been getting?”

Halvar shrugged. “If you want to bring it up with him, you’re free to.”

“I just think that you two stood behind would be an imposing sight, showing that we mean business just as well as he.”

Flynn nodded his head slowly. “I mean, looking round here we’ve got nothin’ but, ah, nancy boys, ‘cept for us.”

“This is true.”

Flynn carried on. “So, maybe we do intimidate him a little. Maybe we do try’n push things in our favour. I’m with ya.”

Te-Ekara nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, that way, he’ll know that we are not all just talk; we do have a bit of bite, as they say.”

“And comin’ from a bird man, that means a lot.” The pair chuckled as Halvar watched with a blank expression, though Augury could see the corner of his mouth prick up a tiny bit .

Modau, Sefris and Verna returned with several servings of Snuff’s roach stew and rice and handed them around. “Who are we intimidating?” Te-Ekara explained his idea as Modau ate his portion, an eyebrow gradually raising. When Te-Ekara had finished speaking, Modau had finished his breakfast and was brushing his coat down. “I was just about to suggest we make our way to Diego to inform him of our success with his men, as he said we only needed to impress three of them. We did our bit for Hand and Whistler, and Sly was going to put in a good word for us for bringing him Nek’s amulet and telling him where the body was. I know we had some other things to do, but it would seem a waste not to cash in on this opportunity at once, wouldn’t you say? We can intimidate people later.”

Te-Ekara lowered his voice. “But that only gets us into the shadows, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but it is the next step up. And then we can always suggest helping Fletcher, with Nek now gone… But I still believe we should be talking to Diego first.”

Nodding, Te-Ekara looked a little defeated. “Yes, perhaps you are right.”

The group then walked over to Diego’s hut, outside of which he was stood shovelling wood onto the campfire in preparation for the evening. Modau led the conversation as usual. “Hello, Diego. How are you today?”

Diego looked up and smirked at Flynn and Halvar. “Better than your two friends will be, I hear. Challenging the champions can be a risky business.”

Modau raised an eyebrow. “Yes, perhaps they have bitten off a little more than they can chew. I suppose we shall see tonight.”

Propping up his shovel and leaning on the handle, Diego paused to appraise the group. “Well, your group has been making waves. I think it’s time for a quick rundown. So, from what I’ve heard, Hand seems to think that some of you might be pretty good for his type of work.  Shifty has spoken to me about these two challengers and he sort of said that they’ve shown a lot of backbone, but he’s reserving judgement until after the fight. Fisk has told me that you’ve indulged in his business and he’s happy to have more customers. Whistler has said you helped out and he seems to generally like you, especially the bird fellow and the half-elf lady here. And Sly… Well, Sly told me about Nek, that fucking idiot. But he was grateful for your finding the body, so there’s that. So, I’d say you’ve done your part and you’re probably ready for a test of faith.”

“Oh?” Modau was barely concealing his curiosity and the rest of the group matched.

“Yeah, you could say it’s the last part before Gomez himself allows an audience with you. It’s something Thorus over there and I like to do to prove loyalty.”

“And what is this test of faith you request of us?”

Diego shifted his shovel and scratched his arm. “You see, everything we do for the king, we do in turn for goods from the outside world. The person in charge of the mine, Ian, is the one who prepares the list of demands. Of the breads, meats, even, uh… even entertainment that we get served here. If you lot retrieve this list for me and bring it back here, I’ll be happy to speak to Thorus and get him to grant you an audience with Gomez inside the castle.”

Modau’s brows furrowed in mild confusion. “Ian is in charge of the mine? I thought Old Camp was…”

“Yes, Ian is part of Old Camp. He’s the sort of manager of the mine itself.”

“I see. So we are to acquire this list from one of your own fellows?”

“Yeah, the mine isn’t too far away. But, uh, there’s a miner in the hut just over there called Graham.” He gestured to a hut propped against the camp wall opposite Diego’s hut. “He’s basically the valley’s cartographer. If you knock on his door and tell him I sent you, he’ll give you a map.”

They finished their conversation with Diego and Modau led the group over to Graham’s hut, knocking on the plank that served as a door. The person who answered was a broad miner with long brown hair tied into a ponytail and a bushy brown beard. When told that Diego had sent them, he held up a hand to signal for them to wait where they were and ducked back inside his hut for a moment, returning with a piece of parchment on which was a detailed map of the valley with a strange pentagram on top of it. Noting everyone’s perplexed expressions, Graham explained that the pentagram had been on the first map he’d obtained, so he added it to all his recreations in case it was important. He then explained where everything was, pointing to the centre for Old Camp, the west of the map for New Camp which was inside a cavern next to a large body of water, and east amongst some palm trees for Swamp Camp. The mine was a day’s journey to the north-west, through a forest and up the mountain nearest to the top left point of the pentagram. The group thanked him and he waved them off as they wandered back to their own huts, taking it in turn to study the map.

A conversation was had about when they should begin this journey and if they would need provisions.  As Flynn and Halvar’s fights were that evening it made sense to wait until the next morning to set off , and as for provisions, Snuff had supplied them with enough scavenger rations to last them a few days so they were all set. Once these and other things had been agreed, the group then went about their own individual business for the rest of the day, either in anticipation or dread for the coming fights.

The group gave Flynn their luck for his fight as his was to be first, then made their way to the benches on the north-east corner of the palisades. The benches on the top were on the same level as their hut and the pit floor was on the lower level, so the spectators were about fifteen feet above the action, able to see everything happening below them. The arena itself was about seventy or eighty feet wide and an almost circular shape, though because the walls were made of the same rotting planks that everything in this camp was made from, the shape was nowhere near uniform. Augury might have felt unsafe sitting on the benches had she not seen that there were many other burly men sitting, laughing and pushing each other around on the other corners and the planks below them were holding relatively firm. She didn’t see any women apart from Sefris, Verna and herself which seemed curious to her. Come to think of it, she had only met human men in this camp. Were there people of other races and genders in different parts of the valley? Or was the mismatched group she’d found herself a part of the strangest members of this colony?

She returned her attention to the fighting pit as a couple of entrances had been opened in anticipation for the combatants. Having never been to a fighting arena and only witnessed her first fight yesterday in the form of the group attacking some molerats, Augury had no idea what to make of this event. Everyone else seemed eager for the fighting to start, but she couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread descending on her.

A slight cheer went up as Flynn entered the pit and took his place near his fellows above, not giving them a second glance as he turned his back to them to face his opponent and steeled himself. The bald, tanned and tattooed Baal Taran followed, eliciting a louder cheer as the patrons already knew him. Shifty stood up and raised his hands to quieten the crowd, then addressed the two in the pit. “Alright lads, do your best to give us a good show, and… begin!”

Baal Taran unsheathed his greatsword and paced toward Flynn, sizing him up and rolling his shoulders, readying himself for Flynn’s move. Flynn did the same and trudged forward, flexing his muscles as he drew his warpick and breathed a deep breath before seeming to be filled with some sort of bloodthirsty energy. Taran seemed a bit wary of the change in Flynn’s demeanor, but continued to charge at him, raising his greatsword and hitting him on an exposed shoulder. Augury stifled a gasp at the first drawn blood coming from Flynn, and continued watching in abject horror as the men swung their weapons at each other. Flynn raised his own pick and brought it down on Taran, ripping a cry from his throat as it tore a gash through his chest. Taran moved around Flynn, perhaps looking for a better angle to strike, then slashed his sword across one of Flynn’s scaly arms, causing yet another gout of blood to spill from him. Flynn spun around recklessly, dragging his pick through the air toward his opponent, and lodged it in Taran’s collarbone with a sickening crack. Augury almost cried out herself at the pain it must have caused and Verna patted her arm absently, though both were much more focused on the fighting. Taran steadied himself, though his legs seemed to wobble and threatened to collapse, then he raised his sword to the sky. “I fight for the sleeper!” He yelled and a sickly green light surrounded his sword, seeming to imbue it with some kind of unholy divine magic that Augury both did and didn’t recognise, then swung it down one final time to slash at the back of Flynn’s neck, causing him to crumple to the floor unconscious. Augury gasped audibly this time and looked desperately around to see if anyone was going to help or call for a healer, then watched in surprise as Baal Taran dropped to his knees and laid his hands on Flynn’s shell, letting some of his unholy magic flow into Flynn’s wounds and restoring some of his energy.

Shifty raised his arms again and addressed the crowd. “And the winner is Baal Taran of the Swamp Camp! Nice show, boys.” The crowd yelled and whistled in agreement and turned to each other to discuss the techniques both combatants had shown.

Baal Taran stood and offered a hand to Flynn who took it with as much grace as he could muster, and helped him to his feet. Augury could only just hear their conversation as they were standing relatively close, but there was still an awful lot of noise from the cheering guards and miners. Taran seemed to be distraught. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me…”

Flynn simply shrugged but he may have been holding his head a little lower than usual. “Well, I didn’t think magic was part of a fair fight but, ah... hey, you won.”

“Us templars fight with… We are given power by the Sleeper, but, uh… it’s so much… I thought I was going to die then… I’m so sorry.”

“Hmm, he gives you power. That’s interesting. Well, I’m alive, you saved me. I’m forever in your debt.” Flynn held out a hand to Taran who shook it warily.

“Please don’t take it personally. I-I never meant to put your life in danger…”

Patting him on the arm, Flynn started walking to the exit so that Augury could only just hear what he said. “All’s well that ends well, my friend.”

As the two combatants made their way out of the pit, Augury turned to stare at Halvar, the realisation hitting her that Flynn had barely survived that fight and only by the kindness of his opponent, and Halvar had challenged a man who looked as though he relished killing people. Halvar said nothing and continued blankly staring down at the pit until he was called down to enter it. Augury stared after him and uttered another prayer under her breath. She was vaguely aware of Te-Ekara leaning over to Modau to whisper something about reshuffling the cards to be more in their favour without anyone else knowing. Modau shook his head. “Nothing in my particular arcane knowledge could help…” He then looked over at Augury who couldn’t tear her eyes away from the pit’s entrance. “Whether or not our little cleric has something that could assist, I don’t know.”

The obligatory cheer went up as Halvar entered the pit, though Augury could swear she heard jeering as well from some of Kharim’s supporters. As Kharim entered, clad in plate mail with wolf pelts woven into the joins and carrying a morningstar and flail and a murderously manic expression, a roar was heard from the crowd. Unsurprising, considering Shifty had told the group that he was his best champion and had won against every opponent who had dared challenge him. Augury looked down at the seemingly calm Halvar and all she could feel was worry and concern for this strange half-orc man she had only just met.

Kharim turned full circle with his arms raised, greeting the crowd as if he had already won, then turned back to face Halvar from across the pit and laughed. “Hey, you did this to yourself, you little mudblood!” Augury couldn’t see Halvar’s face as he stood with his back to his groupmates, but she sensed no change in his demeanor.

Te-Ekara leaned in to whisper to Augury. “I think if you’ve got any spells that would aid him, you might want to cast them now, because that fucker is going to destroy him.”

Flashing him a panicked look, Augury felt her heartbeat quicken. “I-I… I only have healing spells!”

“Then I suggest you get within range.”

“I think I am already, as long as he doesn’t go to the other side of the pit… Te-Ekara, what’s going to happen?”

“He’s going to die!”

If Modau had noticed Augury’s expression, he didn’t show. “Short fight, I believe.”

As Augury gripped the holy symbol at her throat and whispered another panicked prayer, Te-Ekara leaned closer again and patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Augury. You will have enough time to… If things do get out of hand, we will get you down there quick enough.”

Shifty once again stood and raised his arms to address the arena. “Alright boys, let’s see some blood!”

Augury could not conceal the fear on her face as she watched Kharim saunter to the centre of the pit, his arms raised and weapons glinting in the torchlight. “Come on then, mudblood. You’re savage people. You’re great fighters, aren’t you? I’ll even give you a free shot!”

Halvar paused for the briefest moment, then deftly moved forward, loosening a handaxe and carefully aiming before throwing it and quickly ducking back a few feet. The handaxe found its mark on Kharim’s forehead, opening quite a gash that started pouring blood over his shocked face. He looked down at the axe at his feet as if surprised that Halvar had taken up the offered free shot, then turned to face him again.

“Well, as far as cheap shots go, that was a pretty good one, kid.” He then charged closer but wasn’t able to get close enough to attack.

Halvar stalked around the outskirts of the pit, watching Kharim carefully, then threw another handaxe, this time not quite hitting his mark as it clanged off a pauldron and thudded to the floor. Obviously having enough of this cat and mouse game, Kharim bounded over to Halvar, swinging his flail over his head, but Halvar ducked out of the way at the last moment, causing the flail to dislodge some splinters from the rotting wall boards and spraying them over the pair and onto the pit’s ground. Halvar swung his battleaxe but from his crouched position he could only reach Kharim’s plated torso, off of which the axe bounced, barely making a dent. He then straightened and brought it back to slash at one of Kharim’s exposed forearms. Yelling out in pain and anger, Kharim brought his morningstar down but missed and hit the wall again, punching a large hole in the planks, then spun around with his flail and caught Halvar square on the jaw with a crunching thud. Augury had breathed a sigh of relief at the miss but nearly cried out at the hit. She watched in shock as Halvar straightened, seeming to call on some reserve of energy to steel himself, then swung his battleaxe with no success.

Te-Ekara brushed off a remark Modau had made about passing over some hotdogs and leaned in to Augury. “I think you might be needed now, lass.”

Modau seemed to remember Augury’s sensitive nature and leaned in himself. “It might also be helpful to be a little more discreet than normal.”

With one hand still gripping her holy symbol and the other covering her mouth, Augury whispered a prayer to heal Halvar, allowing some of her divine magic to find its way to him and close up some of the wounds on his face. If he had noticed he showed no sign as he braced for another attack from his opponent’s morningstar that caught his chin and knocked his head back savagely, reopening the wounds Augury had just healed. Verna suddenly started clinging to Augury’s leg with a perplexing expression of a scared child, but Augury couldn’t focus on that.

Kharim’s next flail attack missed and allowed Halvar enough breathing room to swing his axe, but again it just clanged loudly off the plate mail. Augury tried to hide another  _ healing word _ prayer behind her hand, letting the divine magic find her companion to fix his now broken jaw, but all of this blunt force to one area seemed too much, and she was only able to heal the superficial wounds.

Te-Ekara turned to Modau, this time not concealing what he was saying by murmuring. “I hope you didn’t bet on this.”

Modau shook his head. “No, I couldn’t find Shifty to put any coin down. Though if I had, I probably would have backed Kharim…”

Ignoring their self-centred remarks, Augury continued watching, her breath held in readiness to cast the last of her healing reserves on Halvar who took not one but two more hits to his jaw, the last of which nearly tore it clean off. He looked almost about to collapse until he drew on some sort of primal energy that allowed him to stand tall, however shakily, much to Kharim’s shock and annoyance. Calling on this energy and breathing heavy ragged breaths, Halvar swung his battleaxe from above him, throwing his entire weight into it, and brought it down to slash at the exposed forearm holding the morningstar, slicing through tendons and muscles in a spray of blood and causing the weapon to be dropped. Kharim himself cried out as he dropped to one knee to cradle his profusely bleeding arm.

Te-Ekara leaned over to Augury once more, barely trying to conceal his whisper. “Now, child, now!” Forgetting to cover her mouth, Augury blurted her prayer hurriedly, almost hanging over the palisade wall as if she were about to leap over it to help him.

With only one weapon in hand and a severely injured arm, Kharim stood up slowly, murderous rage evident on his face. He pulled back the arm holding the flail, spun it around a few times to gain momentum, then brought it crashing into the side of Halvar’s head, again aiming for his broken jaw, and knocking him unconscious. Augury stiffened with an unusual mixed feeling of horror and purpose coursing through her as Kharim then leaned down and grabbed a fistful of Halvar’s tunic, pulling his limp body up to show the crowd. “Is this what you wanna see?!”

As the crowd cheered and Shifty clapped, Augury made possibly the most reckless decision of her life, pushing Verna off her leg, grabbing her shield and mace, then leaping the fifteen foot drop to tear Halvar’s body from Kharim’s grasp. She cradled his broken and bloody face to cast  _ spare the dying _ on him and check that his condition was stable, smoothing the sweat-sodden hair away from his left eye and readjusting the cloth covering his right. She barely noticed a javelin and dagger bouncing off the floor behind Kharim, or Shifty shouting that it was getting good, or even the flying Te-Ekara which had once held her fascination. Right now the only thing that mattered was protecting Halvar.

Indignant at the audacity of the teenager in front of him and bolstered by the yelling and chanting crowd, Kharim pounded his chest with his good fist still holding the flail. “You want some o’ this?!” He then swung his flail round and down but it was met by a shield quickly being thrown up over Halvar’s body and a fiery expression in Augury’s shining silver eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was doing and knew she would have a lot of choice words for herself when this was over, but for now her resolve was too strong for this hulking brute of a man who then turned to swipe at the flying Te-Ekara clawing at his head in a distraction attempt. As he did so, Augury attempted to swing her mace at the heavily armoured man, the adrenaline of the moment running away with her, but it merely bounced off his chest piece and he laughed it off. Her expression and resolve faltered and she instead looked around wildly for a way to drag Halvar out of the arena. Still laughing, Kharim swung his flail at the desperate Augury and caught her shoulder, causing her to cry out and buckle under the force and the pain. Te-Ekara shot an arrow at the big man, lodging it in his neck, then shouted commandingly. “I think you’ve proven who the winner was.”

Thinking this was distraction enough, Augury linked her arms under Halvar’s and started heaving him up to drag him away, but Kharim must have noticed as she could hear him approaching from behind.

The last thing Augury was aware of was immense pain, then everything went black.

_ Augury’s silver eyes opened to a seemingly endless sea of white and red stars. Where was she? Should she call out? Move? Panic? With barely any movement, she turned around to find the temple she had grown up in only a few steps away. Again, almost no movement at all brought her inside the temple where she found the bodies of everyone she grew up with; Sister Kimberly, Theodore, Brother Mark, the other priests and acolytes were all lying on the floor. Were they dead? There was no blood, nor any sign of a fight. Were they asleep, then? Trapped in an eternal dream… _

_ Almost as if made of fog, the temple and its inhabitants disappeared and Augury was now in a swamp in front of a tall stone structure carved into a mountain. Surrounded by humans, dwarves and halflings, all clad in beige tunics, their skins decorated with intricate tattoos and heads shaved bald. A deep sensation pulled Augury inside the structure, passing many men akin to the fanatical zealot she’d seen fight some time ago. _

_ The "temple" corridors winded until she reached a large open room where she could see a man, bald, tattooed and wearing a robe and tunic much more ornate than the novices surrounding his fortress. With a provocatively dressed woman weaving a fan at his side, the man seemed to be in a trance. Eyes rolled back in his head and the room filled with a thin grey smoke. The urge that pulled her inside this temple ignited again. Almost as if to look inside his head. And yet she could feel everything fading away now. _

__ _ Just as she felt herself wake from her vision, she turned to hear the man say "H-....H-Haaallvarrr", before the vision crumbled to a grey mist with a soul crushing screech from something unholy, clearly telling her in a feral way to "GET OUT" _ _. _

Augury snapped awake, her instinct pushing her to sit bolt upright but the numbness in her spine causing her body to fight in two different directions which left her feeling nauseous. She wound an arm around her body to gently feel around her back, finding a large hole in her tunic and some sort of bandage covering a dully aching wound she couldn’t remember getting. She sat up carefully, turning to find Sefris standing over her with a kindly look and Verna sat on the floor next to her. Augury rubbed her forehead, dislodging drops of sweat that could have come either from fighting an infection in the wound or from the vision. “What happened?”

Concern replaced Sefris’ expression. “ Kharim got angry that you were trying to help Halvar and he attacked you, knocking you out . His flail hit your spine and I’m certain it shouldn’t have bent that way…”

Augury felt sick at the thought of such a vital part of the body being damaged, but she tested her legs, feet and toes and discovered that she still seemingly had full use of them.  She breathed a sigh of relief then sucked it back in quickly, looking back up at Sefris. “Halvar?”

“He’s over here, lass.” Sefris moved to reveal Te-Ekara sat rolling some dice on a table next to a make-shift bed in which lay a sleeping Halvar. He looked drawn and bruised, with wounds running from his collarbone to his jawline, but he was alive. Augury relaxed a little then felt a sharp pain run up her spine. She resolved to not let herself slouch anymore, lest it cause some irreparable damage. Te-Ekara handed over some breakfast and Augury shovelled it into her mouth hungrily, needing the energy to replace what she had lost during her vision. “You did very well, child. You were very brave.”

“Probably a bit stupid, too.”

“Not at all, lass. You went with your heart to help a friend which is very commendable. Because of your actions, Halvar lives.”

Remembering the last moments of her vision, she stared over at Halvar, wondering what it all meant and if she should ask him about it. Would he know anything about the Swamp Camp? Was he involved with it? They did use an old orcish word as a title and he was a half-orc… But what if he was involved? Would that mean her vision would cause him issues? Would he even believe that she’d had a vision? She tried to recall if she’d been exposed to any of the vision-inducing smoke Baal Taran had spoken of, but all she could remember was standing next to people who were smoking it. Was it so potent that it affected those nearby? And why was  _ she _ getting visions? She had nothing to do with this strange place and its savage people. She was just a teenager who had been trying to work toward her priesthood.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Halvar stirring and groaning, then felt her heart skip a beat as he sat up and their eyes locked. After a moment, he broke the contact and tentatively felt around his jaw, discovering it was still possibly broken, but less painful. Augury winced along with him as he gently pressed the tender spots on his face, pain evident on his usually impassive expression. He then looked up at Te-Ekara who had asked him if he was feeling any better. “Did I win?”

“If I said yes, would you believe me?”

“No.”

“Then let’s say yes.”

“Was I close?”

Both Te-Ekara and Verna spoke at the same time, saying opposite things, then gave each other annoyed looks. Halvar shook his head and asked what had happened, accepting a very liquidy stew from Sefris as he was filled in on Kharim’s brutality and Augury’s immediate assistance. He locked eyes with Augury again as they spoke of her being knocked out by Kharim, but she couldn’t read his expression.

“Could you give us a minute? I want to talk to Augury alone.” Everyone’s eyebrows raised in surprise, but Sefris, Te-Ekara and Verna obliged and wandered out of the hut to inform the rest of the group that the pair were awake. Halvar gave Augury a hard stare that she felt probably lasted longer than it should have, but when he finally spoke she wished for silence. “What do you think you were playing at?” She blinked at him in surprise as he continued. “You shouldn’t have jumped in like that. You could have got yourself killed and I was in no fit state to protect you.”

“I was helping-“

“You are inexperienced and not even fully trained. One wrong move and you would have met Kelemvor a lot faster than you’d have wanted. And I never would have been able to forgive myself.”

Augury winced but met his stare in earnest, almost reassured by what she believed was his concern for her. “I couldn’t just let him kill you… He was holding you up as if you were a piece of meat!”

Something in Halvar’s expression changed slightly, but the frown returned as quickly as it had left. “I just don’t want you getting hurt for my mistakes.” He shook his head and stood up, placing his bowl on the table Te-Ekara had been rolling his dice on and donning his battered and broken armour and battleaxe, then turned to the doorway. He paused and looked back at Augury once more. “Next time, think of your own life before jumping in to save someone else’s, especially in a place like this. And especially for someone like me.” His eye lingered on hers for a moment and Augury almost felt as if there was something there… then he removed the plank from the doorway and stepped out into the daylight, leaving Augury to ponder the conversation and resolve to not tell him about the vision. If this was the sort of reaction she was to expect from saving his life, telling him about a vision that involved him would be sure to elicit something similar.

Hearing the voices of the group joined by another less familiar voice, Augury donned her chain mail shirt which now sported a large hole in the back and headed out to see who it was. Mordrag, in his scuffed leather and blue bandana, was stood grinning lopsidedly at the group.  “I heard about your fight last night. Sorry I missed it, it sounded like quite the spectacle!”

“There’ll be a rematch, I can guarantee you.” Modau was smirking ever so slightly which Augury came to the conclusion was the norm for him.

“Oh, I bet. But, uh… there’s something I wanted to interest you in, actually. So you know I told you the guards here can’t touch me because I’m the mages’ courier, and uh, basically, I’ve been hearing from some friends of mine here in Old Camp that you’ve been making waves. Now, I like your group of very talented newbies and my boss, Lares, I think would give me a nice promotion if I presented some talent to him. So I was gonna propose to you that, uh… By now, I’m sure Diego has offered you some sort of bullshit test to bring him some shit from the old mine so he can see if he can trust you, a la, you’re now the king’s puppet or something like that, correct?”

“You’re not far off.”

“Yeah, so what I’m saying is, by all means, if you wanna head to the mine, sure. But heading that way, you’d be passing by New Camp and I would love to introduce you all to our little happy band of rascals, if you catch my drift.”

Modau bowed his head. “We would be honoured to meet this Lares.”

Flynn stepped forward. “So, you’re offerin’ us some sort of different pathway?”

Mordrag shrugged. “Well, yeah, you could say that. Like I said to you before, the men in New Camp really are free men and we’re no-one’s bitches like Diego and all these fucking shadows and guards. We do whatever we want. And, uh… well, it would be such a shame to see all these skilled individuals become… well, essentially marionettes on strings, don’t you think?” Augury couldn’t make out if he was being genuine or not, but she continued listening intently.

Te-Ekara looked around at the others and puffed out his chest. “I’m nobody’s puppet.”

Sefris shook her head slightly. “I’m with our friend, Modau. It would be an honour to meet your leader. And weighing up our options is very much still what we’re about.” Modau nodded in agreement.

Mordrag shrugged again. “By all means. I would be happy to show you the way to New Camp.”

Flynn nodded his big head thoughtfully. “Yeah, well, no harm in goin’ an’ havin’ a little look see, an’ if things go a little Pete Tong we can always head over to the mine an’ come back here.”

When everyone had agreed to go to New Camp and had readied themselves to get going, Mordrag led them out of the camp through the south-eastern gate, turning west to head toward New Camp. The group spoke little to each other, though Verna seemed happy enough to talk for all of them. Mordrag had at one point aimed his longbow at what appeared to be a juvenile featherless bird in the distance, killing it and then laughing it off, claiming he needed target practice at which Augury frowned.  During the long walk, she couldn’t help continuing to flash glances at Halvar though he seemed to be refusing to look at her, except for when she tripped over a stone once and he had made sure she was alright before fixing his gaze back on the path. The path wound through the valley, most of which was barren and grey, but when they did see greener parts they were stunning. Grass, flowers, bushes and trees covered the slopes of the bordering mountains and waterfalls cascaded down from the clifftops. Augury marveled at the contrast of the beautiful landscape before them and the dead wastes behind them, then wondered at how this place could have become a prison. She only vaguely knew how it had become one. The king wanted the ore found underground in this valley, and instead of paying workers to do it, sent criminals to live out their sentence mining the ore. But then something went wrong when some mages tried to construct a barrier. She wasn’t sure what had gone wrong, but it had resulted in the whole valley being trapped inside it. Then there had supposedly been an uprising amongst the prisoners and here they were. She looked around again at the lush slopes around her and shrugged.

The journey to New Camp took the better part of a day and they finally arrived at a gate just as the sun was dipping behind one of the mountains surrounding them. The gate was much the same as the one they had passed through to get into the valley; a large wooden construction with a metal drop-gate held open at the top. There were two guards smoking either side of the gate, wearing leather, wolf pelts and blue bandanas around their necks. They ignored the group as they passed through. Noting Mordrag’s presence was enough for them to not feel these newcomers were a threat. Through the open gate was a long path that wound up and around some hills on which several farmers were tending to rice crops, and a massive storehouse looking building overlooked them at the top.

Mordrag clapped his hands together. “Right. If you wanna meet Lares, he’s further in the camp, in the cave. If you ask around, you’ll find him. I’m gonna head off to the bar and have a drink. I’ve grown thirsty.”  He then twisted off a ring from his finger and chucked it at Halvar. “Give that to Lares and tell him it’s from me. It’s a bit of a custom here to, y’know… Lares isn’t really our boss, he’s just… the head of the operation, and it’s a custom to share a part of the loot with the bandit chief, if you catch my drift.”

As Mordrag bounded off up the hill,  Halvar took one look at the ring then gave it to Modau. “You’re the sweet talker here.”

Verna watched the handing over of the ring intently, muttering “gimme the shiny” under her breath.

Modau lifted the ring above her head. “No.” He then examined the ring, finding it to be a pretty silver ring with carved roses and leaves on it.

Verna reached up insolently. “C’mon, Modau, gimme the shiny!”

“Still no.”

Te-Ekara pulled Verna away from Modau, giving her a stern look. “We need that ring, Verna. It is an offering of sorts for Lares to show that we-“

“Ooohhh.” Verna stopped reaching for the ring, paused for a moment, then sat on the floor with her arms crossed. “Boring.” Augury wondered at this strange halfling, looking and acting very much like a child but obviously not being an actual child.

Te-Ekara rolled his eyes. “Splendid. Er, shall we carry on?”

As the group progressed up the hill, they passed a large, fat but muscular man wearing nothing but trousers and an apron and a glaive at his side, seemingly overseeing the farmers tending the rice fields. They were about to pass another man, this time average build and clad in the same leathers and wolf pelts with the blue bandana that seemed to be the uniform of New Camp, but he looked up from what he was doing as they drew level with him and called out to them. He introduced himself as Lefty and said he’d give one of them a silver for some work, to which Flynn said he was in. Lefty then handed him a crate of water bottles and told him to hand them out to the farmers. As Flynn set about this business, the rest of the group merely stood and watched, surprised and a little confused at Flynn’s eagerness to do such a menial task. When he had finished and Lefty had handed him the silver, he told them it was easy work and he needed the money. When Lefty told him to be there the next day, the group explained that they were merely passing through for an errand, possibly not to stay for more than a night. He shrugged his shoulders and said he’d still be on the lookout for them should they pass by him again.

At the top of the hill was a bridge which separated the rice fields from a fairly large lake that was fed into by a waterfall crashing down from the mountain in front of them. There was a building sat on the surface of the lake and a gate this side of the bridge was blocking them from going any further. A few men stood around the gate dressed similarly to how Kharim was for the fight the previous night, with full plate armour and pelts sewn into it, seemingly for both warmth and intimidation, and they were heavily armed, carrying battleaxes and maces with longbows and quivers slung over their shoulders.

Te-Ekara turned to Halvar with a smirk lifting a corner of his beak. “You’re not gonna challenge them and get beat to shit again, are you?”

Augury winced at the remark, making the effort to not touch both the wound on her back and the ones covering Halvar’s jawline, but Halvar just stared at Te-Ekara, obviously not amused. “No.”

As they approached, one of the armed men held out an arm and stepped forward, asking the group if they really wanted to enter the inner camp, explaining that, unlike in Old Camp where there were guards to pay for protection, this camp was completely free and full of cutthroats. The men standing at both of the gates were mercenaries and were friendly enough, but the people in the inner camp would kill them without a second thought if they did anything to upset them. Augury balked at the thought but Flynn said they were only looking to make friends, not enemies. The mercenary held up his hands and stepped out of the way, making sure to remind them that he’d warned them, then the group continued on through the gate.

Just inside the gate, stood on the bridge and worriedly looking between the lake and the rice hills, was a man. Augury didn’t know if Modau had noticed the man’s worried expression but if he had, he’d ignored it, as he continued walking passed with nothing more than a nod in greeting. Te-Ekara, however, stopped and greeted the man properly. “Is the dam going to break, friend?”

The man nodded, his brow furrowed in distress. “I’m afraid so. Some goddamned beast has been chewing on the foundations, and the foundations are massive so it must be a pretty big beast. I built this dam when we established this camp and I’m worried it’ll go straight to hell soon.”

Te-Ekara raised a feathered eyebrow and looked around at the rest of the group. “Well, can’t you just kill it?”

The man raised his own eyebrows in surprise. “Me? I’m just… I’m an architect. The mercenaries won’t kill it for me, but… it’s dangerous.”

Te-Ekara pointed at Flynn. “Is it that big?”

“At least. If not bigger.”

Crossing his arms, Te-Ekara smirked. “Ah, that’s only small.”

Without saying a word, Flynn jumped into the lake, possibly to look at the damaged dam. When he resurfaced, he shook his head to dislodge the water droplets. “Well, ah… that’s one damned dam. We need to do somethin’ about it.”

“Well, I think the beast’s nest is on the other side of the lake.” The architect pointed over to the opposite bank.

As Flynn climbed back onto the bridge, Te-Ekara leaned over to him. “Why do we have to do something about it?”

Verna had her arms crossed. “What’s in it for us?”

Flynn ignored Verna and turned to the bird man. “Because this is people’s crops. If this dam breaks, all these fields, they’re gone. These people survive off this land.”

Verna started tapping her foot impatiently. “Uh huh, but what’s in it for us?”

The architect scratched the back of his head, looking rather confused. “Uh, well… I could put in a good word to Lares for you? Again, I’m the builder, I’ve built everything in this camp. He would respect my opinion if I told him you helped us maintain our operation.”

Verna paused for a moment, as if deep in thought, then smiled widely and looked about to walk off. “Okay, deal.”

Te-Ekara put a hand on her shoulder to stop her and rolled his eyes. “Uh, let us go and speak to Lares first and ensure that we are allowed to operate in this area.”

“Yeah, by all means.” The architect gave the halfling a confused look then went back to looking helplessly at the bridge and the lake.

As the group began walking away, toward the mouth of a cavern, Te-Ekara leaned over to Flynn. “You are a very charitable fellow, aren’t you, old boy?”

Flynn shrugged. “You gotta look after the community.”

Verna nodded, as if she knew what Flynn was talking about, though her next words proved otherwise. “You’ve got to get in with the big guys first and then you succeed.”

Pointing a talon behind him, Te-Ekara looked down at her incredulously. “That is not one of the “big guys”.”

“Everyone’s a big guy to me.”

Te-Ekara shook his head at that. “I don’t know where to take that… Let’s carry on.”

They continued walking passed the floating bar on the lake which must have been where Mordrag said he was going, through the mouth of the cavern, and Augury marvelled at the sheer size of the space. There were three or four levels that were covered in huts made of well made clay and stone, a far cry from the rotting wood and cloth huts in Old Camp, and in the middle on the bottom level there was a grate set into the floor with a man in blue robes pacing around it. There were various campfires dotted around where people were sitting, eating and drinking, playing card or dice games and having a laugh. The atmosphere seemed much more relaxed in this camp, Augury thought, though she was still wary as she remembered everyone in the valley was a criminal of some sort.

Modau stopped someone to ask where Lares was and they pointed to a hut on the left where a few men with blue bandanas could be seen standing guard. The group walked up and the man standing at the front door held up a hand to stop them. “Excuse me, who are you and what do you want with the boss?”

Modau bowed his head in acknowledgement. “We have a ring to present to Lares.”

“A ring? What kind of ring? What you talking about?”

“It’s for Lares only.”

The guard crossed his arms. “Well, I’m sure he would love a ring but that doesn’t explain who you are or how you even know who Lares is.”

Te-Ekara piped up. “Mordrag sent us.”

At that the guard uncrossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. “Mordrag is back? Holy shit. You’d better get in there, quick.” He then ushered them into the hut, leading them into a room decorated with pelts, goblets, decanters and a chandelier, and whispered to a man with a long blond ponytail stood over a table.

The man turned around and leant back on the table, crossing his arms and appraising them.  He was tall, in between Augury, Modau and Halvar who were the tallest of their group , and along with his blond ponytail he sported a fair sized blond beard. He wore the same leather and wolf pelts with New Camp’s signature blue bandana, but there were spikes on his shoulders and he carried an impressive looking mace on his belt and a longbow was slung over his shoulder. He looked at the group expectantly. “So, my man tells me Mordrag is back. Where has that scoundrel been?” Augury couldn’t tell if this man thought Mordrag’s return was positive or not and worried that his vouching for them wouldn’t have the effect he thought it would.

Sefris stepped forward. “Hanging about in Old Camp, as far as I can tell.”

Lares nodded wryly. “Bah, that’s what happens when you get roped into a job for the mages, I guess. Come on then, pay up.” The group looked at Modau who approached Lares with Mordrag’s ring, then stepped back to be level with Sefris. Lares held the ring up to the light from the chandelier and examined it, turning it over and over. He then cracked a smile. “This is a nice piece. He’s a good man, isn’t he?” He then pocketed the ring and looked back at the waiting group. “So, I’m sure he’s sent you here for a reason. So what’re you after?”

Sefris glanced at Modau then looked back at Lares. “We’re just weighing up our options, I’d say.”

“Your options? The hell d’you mean?”

“Well, we’re new and don’t know the way of the land just yet, but we’ve been to Old Camp and now we’re here. To see what fits us best.”

Lares stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Hmm, interesting. Well, I’ll need to catch up with Mordrag once he’s done drinking his fucking money away, but if he thinks that you’ve got what it takes, who am I to judge? So, I’ll speak to him later tonight and see what he tells me about you. But by all means, make yourselves at home while you wait.” He started to turn around and then paused, as if something had just occurred to him. “Oh, and try not to rob the mercenaries so they don’t kill everyone; those lot are a bit touchy.” He then frowned and turned to face them fully again. “Also that mage wandering around in the middle… he’s a bit… he might have a screw loose. You never know with the mages.”

“Spellcasters.” Sefris rolled her eyes. “Am I right?”

Verna crossed her arms in a childish way. “Robbing people is half my passtime.”

Lares raised an eyebrow at the halfling. “Well, do it everywhere but here is the rule.”

Verna uncrossed her arms and smiled brightly. “Okay then!”

As Lares took Mordrag’s ring out and started examining it again, Sefris rolled her eyes again and took another step forward. “We bumped into a man of yours, a builder… I didn’t catch his name. But he seems to be particularly worried about the dam.”

Lares sighed as he lowered the ring. “Yeah, if that dam goes, we’ll no longer have rice and without rice, we’ll no longer have booze. Rice wine is shit but it’s better than nothing, so we’ve gotta do with what we got.”

Verna pushed passed Sefris and Modau. “Our tortle guy says it’s really about to go.”

“Well then, you’d better get someone to sort it out.”

“We can fix it, if…” Verna frowned for a moment then went back to smiling. “Yeah, we can fix it!” Augury felt she had never understood anyone as little as she understood this halfling.

Lares shrugged and started to turn away again. “Knock yourselves out.”

Verna didn’t seem able to stop herself from talking. “Depends… What’s in it for us.”

With an exasperated expression, Lares turned back to face her. “Well, perhaps if Mordrag has a high enough opinion of you, I might give you the chance to join my little band.” He looked down at Verna as if he were talking to a child which, considering her stature and current behaviour, seemed fitting. “How about that?”

Obviously not finished, Verna continued. “What makes this place better than Old Camp?”

“We’re not Gomez’s bitches in here, for one. We do whatever we want, to whoever we want.”

“Uh huh, uh huh. And?”

Lares frowned. “And? That’s just it. Do you wanna be a prisoner working for someone else? If so then feel free to fuck off back to Old Camp and pick up a pick and mine ore for the fucking king.”

Verna seemed to struggle with something. “I need to talk to my… what’s the word for people you know and work with but you’re not quite friends with-”

“Associates. Now scram.”

“Associa- okay, bye.” Verna hurriedly left the hut with the rest of the group following behind in bemusement. When outside, she turned to them with an almost embarrassed expression. “Why did you let me keep talking?!”

Te-Ekara shrugged. “You just wouldn’t shut up.”

“It’s very easy to shut me up; just put a hand over my mouth.”

Augury frowned down at her, remembering her saying how easily she was provoked into violence. “But you might stab us…”

“No, generally if someone puts a hand over my mouth I usually take it as a sign that I’m talking too much and I-” She was interrupted by Modau covering her mouth with his hand, rolling his eyes as he did so.

Flynn, Halvar, Te-Ekara and Sefris all started walking back toward the architect on the bridge , but Modau’s eye had been caught by the mage still pacing around the grate in the cavern floor and headed over that way, with Augury and Verna in tow. They could now see under the grate where there was an enormous mound of blue ore, radiating arcane light. Verna was obviously enamoured by this stash of glimmering metal and had started reaching out for it, meaning Augury had to grab onto her and hold her back. “I want that.”

“No, it’s uh…” Modau looked to Augury who shrugged. “It’s explosive.”

“It’s so shiny, though.”

“And explosive.” When Modau gave Augury a pointed look she nodded and put her hand over Verna’s mouth who continued reaching and mumbling under her hand.

As they approached the mage, he looked up with a surprised expression. “Hello there, fellows.”

Modau proceeded with the conversation, as both Augury and Verna were relatively incapacitated. “Good evening. You’ll have to excuse the small one, she had a little too much of the rice water on the way up. We are fresh to New Camp. You seem like the kind of person who knows what’s going on. Verna here is particularly excited by the blue rocks below us. You may need to explain to her why she can’t have them.”

The mage looked between the three strangers with uncertainty, lingering on the struggling halfling. “Well, my name is Cronos and I’m the guardian of this ore. You see, I’m sure someone at some point has told you that we’re planning on blowing this ore up and destroying the barrier.”

Modau frowned slightly. “Yes, I have a few questions about that. There seem to be one or two flaws in your plan…”

Cronos’ expression turned into a questioning look. “Why would there be flaws in it?”

“Well, blowing things up I think might… I’m interested in knowing how you plan to do that.” Verna began mumbling under Augury’s hand about wanting the shinies again and Modau gestured over to her. “She doesn’t want the shinies to blow up, as you can see.”

Verna squirmed in Augury’s arms and feeling that they would probably hinder Modau’s conversation, Augury decided that they’d best leave. “Um, Modau? Maybe I should take her and join the others at the dam.”

Looking relieved, Modau nodded at Augury. “Go right ahead, my dear.”

Nodding herself, Augury threw Verna over her shoulder and carried her back over toward the dam where she could see the others talking to the architect. Verna went limp seemingly with disappointment and Augury sighed in relief.


End file.
